Turkiye, Iraq agree military pact against PKK

ISTANBUL: Turkiye said on Thursday it had agreed a military cooperation pact with Iraq that will see joint training and command centres against Kurdish separatists, with Baghdad saying it will ban the PKK as a party.

“We are going to raise our cooperation to the highest level thanks to joint command and training centres included in this agreement,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said after meeting in Ankara with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein. He welcomed “Iraq´s growing awareness about the PKK”.

The Kurdistan Workers´ Party, or PKK has been involved in an on-and-off armed insurgency against Turkiye since 1984.

Labelled a “terror organisation” by Turkiye, the United States and European Union, the PKK has bases in northern Iraq from where it launches attacks into Turkiye.

Hussein said the presence of PKK forces in northern Iraq poses “a danger for the Kurdistan region and other Iraqi cities” and poses a threat to Iraqi society. Iraq´s northern Kurdistan region runs along the border with Turkiye.

“The Iraqi government has decided to add the PKK to the list of banned parties,” he added.

Hussein said that in addition to fighting militant organisations the discussions also touched upon securing their border against smuggling and illegal migration. The pact follows signs of a thaw in relations between Ankara and Baghdad, which have been strained by a Turkish military operation against the PKK in northern Iraq.